Rice/Story
Fondness Story 'I. Awakening' "...Huh?" My thoughts slowly became much clearer and active. I haven’t felt this way since the day I was summoned by my Master Attendant. As my eyes began to focus, I realized I was in a spacious room...though spacious wouldn’t be the right word for it, as even though the room had no furniture or decoration, it was packed with food souls. "Huh? Where am I..." I was helping my Master Attendant just now when, for some unknown reason, I ended up here in the blink of an eye. The scary thing was, I had no idea what had transpired between now and then. It was for that reason I was panicking a little, the other being how the other food souls were all staring at me. "Uh..." It was then a food soul who looked very well-behaved came to my side, checking me over with what appeared to be much concern. Finally, she relaxed her expression and suddenly threw herself into my arms. "You’re awake!" "Uh, have we...met before?" I asked in a small voice. To my surprise, it ignited a discussion. "Don't you recognize us?" "How could that be? Her exhaustion must be getting to her!" I did not know what they were talking about, but from what I could piece together from listening, it seems we were always together. Except that was not the case. Unless...this is a dream? "I, I don’t think, I can, remember, you guys, too well... What are we, doing, in this room?" "But we’ve always been here?" The well-behaved food soul was confused at my question. She tilted her head and thought about it for a while before saying: "Because the humans said we should be here." "But, what’s the, point, of, putting so, many, food souls, in here?" "’Food Soul’? What’s a ‘Food Soul’?" Huh? "We...are all, food souls... Do you guys, not know?" I was surprised to see everyone shaking their heads. Human or food soul, everyone should know who they are, but the guys in front of me didn’t look like they were lying. "Then, then at least, you guys, should know, what kind of, food souls, you are, right? For instance, I’m Rice. What about, you?" "Rice...?" That well-behaved food soul reacted the same as earlier: completely dumbfounded. I looked at everyone else. Their reactions were the same... "Then... What are, your names?" "My name is No.11!" A cheerful food soul with the appearance of a young boy was the first to answer. Soon after, more and more food souls replied with their "names": "No.7." "I’m No.25!" "I am...No.16..." .................. And that well-behaved food soul replied with her name too: "No.30". No matter who, they all went by different numbers as names, but those weren’t names of food souls. And, this strange room had a name to it too: "Home." 'II. For Humanity' This room packed to the brim with food souls felt too tight of a space for me, but these food souls didn’t seem to think so. To them, it was only natural to live here. Though I don’t know what on earth their Master Attendant is doing, I think it’s wrong to treat them like this. But despite knowing this, there’s not much I can do for them either. There is a door in this room, but it’s locked from the outside. When I called by the door hoping for someone to respond, the food souls were strangely petrified. I had thought they’d truly never set foot out of this room before when, after a while, the door opened from the other side. I immediately stood up and saw a food soul limping into the room. "Guh!!" Judging by the look on his face, he was in a lot of pain. The door quickly shut behind him, and he collapsed to the floor. I rushed over and discovered he had sustained serious injuries. "We must, hurry and, treat him!" I wanted to save him, but as I was about to ask the food souls around me for help, I discovered my hands were giving off a soft glow: soul power! I’m supposed to be an empty shell, but I’ve somehow developed soul power since arriving here. It appears to be something I should be happy about, but it was not normal. After successfully healing him, a man’s voice rang out in the room from somewhere. "Next subject, No.22." That door opened again. A food soul stood up at the call, giving us a wave. She didn’t look scared or hesitant at all as she left the room under everyone’s gaze. "What’s, going on, outside?" "Everyone must undergo experimentation for the sake of humanity~" No.30 smiled as if she were affirming her reply. But what kind of experiment would injure them so badly? "We do get hurt, but if it’s for humanity, it’s worth it...I’m sure." I somehow feel as if she said that to convince herself. "...But there are exceptions. I heard the humans say that before we were summoned, there were a ton of scaredy-cats who ran away. I have no idea why they would do that. To help humanity is our purpose!" Perhaps running away was the right choice...but I didn’t dare say that. 'III. Longing For The Future' I don't know how long I have been locked up here. In this room without windows, I can’t even tell if the sun has set. The food souls were still undergoing trials one after one... I could accept the notion that they would without a doubt come back from the experiments injured, but recently, the food souls who left have never returned. According to No.30, this was the first time something like this had ever happened since they were summoned, and she didn’t know when it would end either. "Why, is this happening... If only, Master Attendant, were here..." "What's that?" "Right, you guys don’t know, what ‘Cooking Attendants’, are, right?" Everyone was clearly a food soul, but I was the only one who thought so. Naturally, they wouldn’t know about anything food soul-related either. This place is nothing like the restaurant. It feels so foreign... As time passed, more and more food souls left the room. Where there was once chatter all around, the room was now becoming more and more quiet. A heavy atmosphere started to fill this "home", but no one felt like speaking up. Perhaps the ones who would have were the ones who ran away. "Are they not coming back...?" Watching No.30 wish for her friends to come back, I had to do something. It wasn’t realistic to just grab everyone and escape. The only thing I could do was comfort her. "Maybe, they went out, on an adventure?" "On an...adventure?" "Yes, on an adventure, in the outside world. Did you know, there is a, very big world, on the outside?" When I started talking about the "unheard of", the few food souls who remained all gathered around. Their eyes were filled with curiosity, and I decided that I would do whatever I could to give them more hope. "What is...the world like?" "The world is, an endless place! There are tall mountains, blue oceans, green forests...and many, humans and food souls...and cities, we live together in." "Humans...living with us?" No.30 could hardly believe what she heard. "We have the fortune of, living alongside humans?" "Right now, it might be, hard to believe, but, it’s true!" To prove my point, I began to recount the sights I’d seen with my master attendant. Whether it was daily life in the restaurant or the adventures we'd had outside, I spared no details telling everyone about these memories I treasured. Little by little, I began to see a longing for the future in everyone’s eyes. Each and every food soul began to prepare themselves for the day they could go on adventures with their own cooking attendant, and they all hoped that the day they could live alongside humans would come a bit sooner. But these hopeful food souls still left the room one after the other under the command of that man’s chilly voice, until No.30 and I were the only ones left... 'IV. All Systems Go' No.30 and I were huddled together in a corner of the room. Across from us was that door that would "swallow" food souls one after the other. We hadn’t spoken in a long time, as though fearing that once we did, that cold voice would order one of us to go through that door. "..............." No.30 kept a tight grip on my hand. Though she was silent, I knew she was terrified; terrified one of us would leave. But this was unavoidable: to undergo experiments for the sake of humanity was something she had already prepared herself for. And I too was afraid I was about to suffer the same fate. "...Um." I don’t know how long it was before she finally broke the silence. "Is there...really a world outside?" "Yes!" I saw with my own eyes, so I couldn’t be lying. "Yeah, I believe you...I was just wondering; even though we’ve never left here, it feels like you went to the outside world in person... But I envy the life you had with your master attendant...I wonder if I’ll be able to be with my own someday..." "It’s about time. No.30, it’s your turn." The door was opened. In the end, the time still arrived...! I felt like a blow had been dealt to my heart. I glanced at No.30—she was about to leave me too! "...Then...I’ll be going then." She stood up and took a step forward, but stopped--because I still kept a tight grip on her hand. And even as she looked back at me in surprise, she didn’t try to break free. In those eyes were longing and hunger. "...No.30, let's run away!" She was finally no longer able to hold her sorrow back and turned, throwing herself into my arms. "... Yeah!" "People who hurt food souls ain’t nothin’ if not bad news!" was something Master Attendant always said. And as Master Attendant’s food soul, I must protect them from harm! "I’ll take you, to Parisel. My master attendant, is there, we just need to, escape..." As if we had finally broken free from our heavy shackles, we were discussing what we’d do with our future freedom when a few humans suddenly walked in through that door. "...Who are you?!" "..............." The man at the front was dressed in white and wore a gold monocle. He looked kind, but when our stares met, I felt fear strike in my heart. "...Take her away." In a calm yet terrifying tone of voice, he sealed No.30’s fate. I wanted to stop his two henchmen from taking No.30 away, but I realized my hands and feet wouldn’t listen to me anymore. "No! Let me go! Let me go, I said!" No.30 cried as she struggled, reaching out to me in despair. But that wasn’t enough to call forth the little bit of empathy they might’ve had in them. As she was being dragged away, right before the door shut, No.30 used the last of her strength to shout-- "Onee-chan!!!" O-onee-chan?! "I was really hoping you bunch would stop playing house with each other." That man was disappointed at No.30’s calls, but still smiled. "What’s, going on, who are you, what kind of, place is this?!" Since my hands and feet wouldn’t listen, the only thing I could do was question him with everything I had left. But he dodged my questions and continued saying what he wanted to say. "I hope you can understand that in imposing restrictions on your relationships with each other, the experiments will be able to progress more smoothly. Only if you devote your all to completing these tasks will humans have a future. Or else, you’re going to go down the same road as that guy who ran away." "...That guy who ran away?" "But no matter. At this stage of the experiment, the preparations are already complete. As the main subject, it’s what you’re going to do next that’s the real deal. Experiment start——No.2. " 'V. Rice' "Mithra, scientific explanations are a bit too much for me. Can you give me a summary?" "So, a food soul’s form can imitate human biology, but all they’re doing is storing a permanent save of their memories. Which is to say, even if they’ve forgotten something from the past, the memory can still be triggered under certain conditions...get it now?" "Oh... Ohhh! So-so like pouring salt into a jar of sugar, where if you use a long enough spoon you can taste both sweetness and salt?" "What the hell?" The girl by the name of Mithra gave a scornful look at the cooking attendant, who was not very knowledgeable in the field of science. "Who cares if I get it or not? The point is, if Rice here runs into a situation like that someday, then it’ll be because of what you described, right, Rice?" ".................." "My guys?" "Huh?!" "Rice seems to really be getting into this "trick" you blindly came up with." "That is, if it’s Rice we’re talking about... But what just happened? You didn’t zone out, did you?" "...Master Attendant...I, I’m not, too sure, either...I think I remembered, something..." "Huh!? Did she remember her past!?" Hearing Rice’s answer, Mithra seemed to be more interested than the previous person. "So, what did you remember?" Faced with two curious people, Rice thought for a while before finally shaking her head. "I don't, remember much, I just don’t, feel too happy, right now...sorry..." "Hm... Perhaps it's something in her memories that's affecting her mood?" "Is that so? But no need to be afraid. No matter what happens, as long as I’m here, I won’t let anything hurt you!" "...Yeah!" Notes * The official translation is a fan translation by Asureiko on reddit. Category:Food Soul Story